A classic City wedding in the historical Fairmont Palliser with gold, champagne, ivory and black details

Sarah came to the Evelyn Clark Weddings office looking for a wedding planner that could do a classic “Manhattan inspired wedding”. She had me there with those words!

To celebrate their love, Sarah and Adam wanted a formal party for their friends and family. They wanted to create an atmosphere of elegance and glamour. Think black-tie, Frank Sinatra and champagne.

Choosing to host their wedding at the Fairmont Palliser, therefore, was an easy choice. The elegance and downtown Calgary location of the Palliser was the perfect setting for this luxurious, black-tie affair. Guests dressed in their finest while dining and sipping bubbly during a beautiful night out in the city.

Fairmont Palliser Calgary wedding_wedding party

Wedding planning & design for a classic black, white, gold wedding

To evoke the classic glam feeling Sarah and Adam were craving, we chose to work with a colour palette of black, white, gold and champagne. The wedding party (and most wedding guests) were styled in this colour palette. The men wore classic tuxes and ladies were in long black gowns with updo hairstyles.

Although casual wedding styles are popular right now, my heart skips a beat when I see timeless glamour like in this wedding. I truly gasped when I saw Sarah in her Watters gown, and I loved that Adam took his classic tuxedo to the next level with a scarf.

Fairmont Palliser Calgary wedding_black white bridesmaids

Wedding ceremony – Fairmont Palliser Turner Valley Room

The Turner Valley Room’s bold red walls and heavily patterned drapes and carpet can be a bit tricky to work with. Thankfully, our neutral colour palette and classic floral design let us enhance the room without forcing a design to fit. A key part to this was adding the aisle runner to ground the ceremony design in such a busy room.

Wedding reception – Fairmont Palliser Alberta Room

With its soaring ceilings and pastel colours, the Alberta ballroom takes you away to a different place. Almost Parisian or Viennese, the room itself has a lot of embellishment. Even though the decor for Sarah and Adam’s wedding is stunning, everything about it seems to belong with the room. Not any one thing cries out for more attention.

One of the favourite elements to their decor is the table linens. The swirl pattern looks like too much when on its own, but from afar it reads as champagne with a bit of sparkle. Upon closer inspection, the intricate patterns appears. I love this detail! And the pattern was repeated in the wedding invitations.